What Having a Dog Can Teach Us About Marketing.

I have a dog. Bear is his name and he's an adorable pit-bull-lab mix. Bear's about to turn one soon, he's still a puppy. The other day I was trying to get Bear to come to me from my girl's bedroom. I thought, how can I get Bear to come to me without just yelling at him, which by the way wasn't working. So I said to myself, I'll take out a bag of chips, and when he hears the sound of the bag he'll think about the chips, want the chips, and come running. I took out the chips, crinkled the bag.... nothing. He was being very obstinate on this particular day, so then I took out the chips and pretended to eat them, making, gratuitous "Mmmmmmmmm" sounds. As soon as he heard that first "Mmmmmm" Bam! he jetted off the bed and raced into the kitchen. Got him..."Good Bear"!

Nice story Jonny but what can this teach us about marketing?

A couple things:

1. Yelling does not always work at your Dog or at your customers, and usually just annoys them to the point that they simply annoy your yelling and everyone elses as well. The overwhelming rush to announce things to people is becoming less and less effective. People at large are exposed to so may ads everday it becomes a blase' part of the background noise of everyday life. Sometimes it works, but it can't be counted on as a sure fire way to get their attention, engage them or motivate them.

2. Sometimes even the enticing promise of something you know they usually like isn't even enough...In Bear's case the sound of the bag of chips, usually a sure fire hit failed. Just because it worked once, don't sit back on your laurels and hit "repeat". GoDaddy?

3. You have to make them feel that there is enjoyment to be had, and if they don't act soon not only will they miss out, but someone else will enjoy their goodies. In Bear's case the idea of gobbling some chips wasn't enough, he had to hear that I was enjoying the chips and think "Hey that could be me. That should be me!" And go running around the house as fast as he could to get him some!

Think about the lines of people wrapped around the Apple stores to buy the iPhone. The iPhone was marketed in such a way to make everyone think; " This is really cool. iIwant it. And if I don't hurry someone else will be calling, surfing the web, and clicking away on what should be My iPhone.

So what's the big lesson? Entice your customers and potential customers. How do you entice them? Interact with them. Become a part of their blogs and discussion boards, talk with your brand ambassadors, look at your early adopters and then ask yourself how to bridge the gap from the early adopters to the critical mass of your greater consumer base. And ask yourself how you can grow that base using what you've learned about how and why people interact with your brand.